SOUND SAVER. The third Beat Happening album. Originally a 1989 K release, "Black Candy" was re-issued on Sub/Pop in 1993, but has been out of print for several years (although it was included on the Crashing Through box set of Beat Happening material). Here Bret, Heather, and Calvin explore the more sinister aspects of life, with an eye towards the relief that can be found in its simpler pleasures. ?Melancholy? is a word that has been used to describe this approach, though Black Candy does include many optimistic moments. If you like your pop music effervescent and carefree, there's ?T.V. Girl? and ?Other Side? to polish your bike to; if you like it black, here's a blast of playhouse on fire, pajama party, and haunted shadow to propel your day. ?The most sexually-charged rock LP since some Bauhaus disc I forgot the name of...the secret to Beat Happening's complete domination of rock lies not in the music's simplicity, nor what some fuckheads see as feigned innocence or eccentricity; Calvin, Heather and Bret take on situations and ideas, not ?cause they think it's funny or strange to feel the way they do ? Beat Happening truly live in the world they sing about...it's not a sense of wonder they convey, it's the truest sense of abandon anyone's created in way too long...read all about it in USA Today, best side one since Slip It In. I know, real predictable benchmark.? - Gerard Cosloy, Conflict